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Monday, January 13, 2014

This is Martin Bonner (January 15th at the Cleveland Museum of Art)

[THIS IS MARTIN BONNER
screens Wednesday January 15th at 7:00 pm at the Cleveland Museum of
Art.]

Review
by Bob Ignizio

THIS IS MARTIN BONNER
follows its titular character (Paul Eenhorn) as he starts a new job
helping prisoners readjust to society when their sentences are up.
Martin is doing a good bit of readjusting himself. Recently divorced,
he lost his job as business manager for a church after going through
a crisis of faith. He's had to file bankruptcy, and eventually had to
move from Maryland to Reno, Nevada for his current job after two
years of fruitless searching.

Martin's
first client is Travis (Richmond Arquette), who hopes to get his life
back on track and reconnect with his daughter after serving a 12 year
sentence. Although Martin is merely supposed to drop Travis off with
his assigned mentor, the devoutly religious Steve (Robert
Longstreet), something clicks in the short time the two ride
together. When Travis needs advice on some personal matters, he feels
more comfortable talking to Martin. The two men slowly start to form
a genuine friendship, sensing in each other kindred spirits. However,
an act of deception by Travis threatens to undermine that friendship.

Writer/director Chad Hartigan may be
telling a fairly simple story, but he and his cinematographer Sean
McElwee make sure it remains visually interesting throughout. When
it's not focused on the weathered countenances of its two leads,
McElwee's camera captures nice little details of a Reno that looks
very much lived in.The film ends a bit abruptly without
resolving every issue in its protagonists' lives, but that feels
about right.

Like
its protagonist, there's nothing outwardly flashy about THIS
IS MARTIN BONNER. It's just a
quiet little character piece, but one with considerable emotional
depth and authenticity. For
some, it will seem as if nothing much happens in this movie. There's
no romance, no fights or chases; just a couple of dudes hanging out
and helping each other deal with their problems. Not every plot element is fully resolved by the time the film reaches its fairly abrupt ending, but that feels right. This is a film less concerned with plot than with getting inside its characters and
seeing how they connect and affect each other, and how because of that they're in a
different place mentally at the end of the movie than they were at the
beginning. 3 out of 4 stars.